Is he? "I'm enthusiastic," said Kwan, who tends to blurt his words. "I'm friendly. I say things without thinking. Over the top. I'm like, 24/7 hyperactive."

Fashionwise, Kwan's kooky hats are Mardi Gras meets Dr. Seuss, with occasional side trips into traditional. Like the giant, resplendent mariachi sombrero he wears on Cinco de Mayo.

These outsized hats look all the more preposterous on Kwan because he is bespectacled and slight of build. Also he pairs them with nutty glasses. And he embellishes already crazy hats with exquisitely tasteless craft store ornaments.

His werewolf hat, for instance. The insane chapeau features a long-jawed, sharp-toothed werewolf atop his head. Kwan placed a realistic feathered bluebird in its jaws.

"It cracks people up," Kwan said.

Of course, Kwan does seasonal. "I have turkey hats, Valentine's Day hats, St. Patrick's Day hats. ... "

For St. Pat's Day, Kwan encourages customers to spin a Wheel-of-Fortune type wheel atop his green Irish bowler. The wheel stops at such commands as "Do your best leprechaun imitation."

Of course, Kwan has several Santa hats: a sporty "pimp Santa" hat, and one's with Santa's head, beard and all.

"I'm cautious with that one," Kwan admitted. "The hairs might come off and fall in the soup."

Kwan does other shtick. Out of his hat he will magically produce crayons for kids. "To get a reaction from a kid is priceless."

Another routine involves two turkey hats. The first features a goofy turkey sitting atop his head, its long legs draped ridiculously down the sides of his face.

Kwan wears it when taking a diner's order. Later, he will emerge wearing a second hat resembling a plucked and stuffed turkey jammed atop his head.

"(Customers) say, 'What happened?' I say, 'It got cooked."

Customers gawk at Kwan. They smile and laugh. People ask him to pose with them for photos. Kids use their crayons to draw Kwan and his funny hats. Some of their drawings are taped to the wall at Denny's.

"It just makes me smile," said customer Darlene Jennings. Jennings said Kwan is a good waiter, too. "He's always on the ball. He's such a good person."

Kwan's idiosyncratic flamboyance is unusual for a corporate restaurant server. But, said Kwan's manager, Nati Bugarin, it's by popular demand.

"Lots of customers complain if he doesn't wear his hat," she said.

When Bugarin visited the Philippines, she returned with a traditional buri for Kwan that looks like appropriate head gear for a rice paddy.

Customers and co-workers bring Kwan hats, too.

"I was shopping in San Francisco when I saw the hat," Kwan's fellow server, Jennifer Callahan, said of a towering felt top hat in Valentine's Day red. "It had Tim's name written all over it."

Kwan doesn't limit his hats to work. He actually wears them on his own time, when running errands or shopping.

The fact is, Kwan said, the hats free him from a crippling shyness.

"It makes me cool, calm and collected," he said. "It inspires me to be who I am: a happier person not afraid to say what's on my mind."

Kwan had to explain to me how wearing a giant golden King Tut hat replete with rearing asp can enhances social confidence.

"It's like Lady Gaga," Kwan explained. "We have low self-esteem. We didn't have big friends in school. We were shy. So we like to wear wild stuff and get attention."

Mysteriously, single women are not drawn to men wearing a giant hamburger atop their heads. "Girls do not find this attractive," Kwan gloomed.

Also, his Chinese immigrant parents detest the hats. "They're traditional. They think this is weird. Who wears turkeys on their head?"